Spider-Man 2099: One More Week
by padfoot2099
Summary: Miguel O'Hara has only under a month adjusting to his abilities and dual-life of being the Spider-Man of his era in 2099, becoming the symbol the public needs against the large business tycoons such as the ever massive Alchemax. But when a new girl in school discovers his secret, together they realize the responsibility of the life he's chosen, and the week that solidifies it all.
1. Prologue: So Sorry, Court

Chapter One.

Miguel O'Hara.

Upon first glance, it isn't terribly difficult to understand the disinterested look etched into the long haired, disheveled young man that sat in the far back corner of the classroom. It was roughly a quarter past eight in the morning; who in their right mind would adore the idea of learning advanced bio-chemistry at eight in the morning?

"And when the two chemicals interact like this, we can confer, from their chaotic nature, that…"

What they did, how they reacted, and hell, even what these chemicals were had fallen on the long haired boy's deaf ears. He'd been gnawing absentmindedly and somehow also aggressively on the number two pencil between his fingers. Beady eyes adorned with numerous bags of weariness were trained on the analog clock that hung above his homeroom teacher.

"…given what we know on how they're made of, if we can assume that…"

Oh, how he wished that glorious clock would just land squarely on top of his head.

No, no.

Miguel was never this cynical.

But on said first glance, how could one not assume this?

They could not know the events that had transpired within the last few weeks.

How hard he had fought. The lives he had risked.

The lives he had lost.

Experiences that would surely leave bags under beady eyes.

Adrenaline that would flow through you so strong that it would leave you gnawing on anything you could get your hands on.

And finally, sights that would leave you empty and disinterested in virtually anything and everything else.

Miguel could not take mediocrity he had now found himself in any longer.

He needed to get out. He needed to breathe, alone, if only for a moment.

Miguel springs from his desk so quickly that the chair nearly follows with him, screeching loudly across the classroom floor. It isn't that he had been planning on making his exit a stealthy or even inconspicuous one, but he didn't appreciate all eyes latching onto him the moment he'd dashed towards the main door.

"Uh, Mr. O'Hara?"

Damn. Only had one finger on the doorknob.

"I'm afraid I can't excuse you just yet. We're only fifteen minutes in after all."

His ears pick up on muffled laughs from behind, and even in his disheveled state he can't really blame them. "Mr. Oresette, I need to go," he says simply, swinging the door open.

"I can't have you leave; if you do I'll have you-"

"You'll have me what?" he snarls, daring a quick look back as he vanishes through the doorway. "I could _teach_ this class."

He slams the door shut with far greater force than he had originally meant, the door frame shaking violently from it. A student's rather voluminous voice bellows "damn!" from behind it. He doesn't allow himself to grin at the student's reaction however as Miguel sprints away from the room in case his instructor felt the urge to regain dominance, and an even further urge to use him as an example.

Darting around a corner a moment later awaits his karma however.

A locker ornamented with a large variety of flowers and sympathy cards catches his eye. He knows beyond a doubt whom this particular locker belonged too but he drifts towards to it warily all the same. His fingers tremble slightly as he lifts the lock.

And his mouth damn near hits the floor.

The locker itself had been dressed with several cards, some homemade, and some of the hallmark variety. All their messages roughly bore the same text though: _You Will Be Missed, Courtney!_

The items inside the locker are remained untouched, out of respect he assumes.

A few textbooks, a hooded sweatshirt, and an incredibly out-of-date CD player that looked all too familiar.

Yet it is one thing that makes his heart sink.

One item that makes him gasp.

A thing that quickly makes him realize he'd never seen inside her locker until now.

A photograph of himself and a blonde haired, freckled and bespectacled young woman, whose arms were slung around his shoulders, grinning from ear to ear. On his right a dark-haired young woman was preoccupied putting bunny ears behind his head, while another young man was far too busy doing the exact same to her.

"Oh my God…" a fragile voice from behind whispers.

He looks over to his right as a familiar looking brunette takes the photograph from his hand.

"She liked us," she whispers, more to herself if anything, entranced by the picture. "She actually really liked us."

"Sheryl, I," he swallows, his eyes scanning the area around their feet as if the words he needed to say were embedded on the floor. The air between them is so electric that his deductive powers don't push him to ask what she was doing here and not back in class. "I was there. I was there when she-"

"When Spider-Man got her killed?"

If he still had been holding the photo it most likely would have reached the ground the same moment his jaw now had.

It was funny, he thought deliriously; even in a moment like this, she still had the uncanny ability to catch him off guard.

If only he had a special sense for _that_.

"What?" Miguel murmurs stupidly.

"She told me… she told me, Miguel." She looks up at her best friend, tears frothing in her eyes so quickly that it takes every inch of his willpower to hold her gaze. "She was rushing off to find him. She said something stupid, that he was fighting for us, and he needed something only she could give him. I was right _there, _Miguel. Right there with _her_. All I had to do was stop her from going, and I didn't, I, I-"

Sheryl gasps as Miguel pulls her into a tight embrace, and sobs uncontrollably against his chest for what feel like hours, and almost fails to retreat from him for a moment. "I'm sorry… it just all came over me."

He doesn't speak.

He merely hugs her again, pats her back, and takes off back down the hallway, leaving her best friend to grieve the rest of the school day in peace, but alone.

He had no choice, none at all. How could he look her in the eye any longer? To feel as though he had the slightest bit of right to console her?

When he knew that it was actually because of him that their best friend was no longer with them?

That he had failed so terribly that the damage was irreversible?

That he was Spider-Man?

Reaching the stairwell that led up to the roof, he's alone and more importantly free of his high school teen façade. As any normal teenager would race to the top skipping one or two steps at time here and there, Miguel effortlessly leaps a story's length vertically as talons spring forth from his fingers and toes. As they enable him to cling onto the surface as if held aloft by invisible wirework, he climbs to the exit door in no time at all. A door that is normally heavily and electronically locked to prevent students from accessing the school's rooftop provides no challenge to this teenager however. With one quick flick of his wrist, the metal door cries in agony as it swings open, almost off its hinges.

The sun hits his face as tears finally roll down it. It was a ridiculously bright and cloudless day. Had the world not known that someone so special had left it forever?

And it had been his fault?

Miguel rears his chest and lets out a howl like the damned.

-Voicemail Initiated- _Mr. O'Hara, You Have One Unheard Message!_

He almost doesn't hear his holo-watch's notification over his own sobs. He raises his arm up after taking a minute to wipe his face, "Power down, Lyla."

_Are You Sure Mr. O'Hara?_

"Yes, I'm sure."

Weirdly he smiles as he confirms this.

He can almost hear Courtney's voice come from outside of himself rather than within… she always had been annoyed by the fact that every electronic device seemed to question doubly whatever action you wanted to do. "Duh, of course I want you to shut down, I asked didn't I? Why is once never enough?" he imitates to himself.

Exhaling, he walks toward the edge of the rooftop, the talons in his feet and hands retracting as he stares directly downward, avoiding the Sun's gaze as best as possible. Having Accelerated Vision did have its perks, the ability to see in the dark, telescoping distant objects with ease nearly able to see things at the microscopic level but the enhanced sensitivity to light was not one of them.

Thankfully the city streets miles below were shaded to a more comfortable disposition. TecCars zoomed on by through the designated airways, a nearby holo-television blaring an Alchemax advertisement for what had to have been literally the thousandth time this week.

Ah, Alchemax. The super-duper-mega corporation that practically ran their city (if not perhaps their entire state), and practically made Miguel the young man he was today, them and their lovely cross-species genetics division.

The reason why spider D.N.A was now embedded into his own.

The reason why everything within the last week had happened the way it had.

Everything.

Miguel curses the company as his head hangs low.

"I'm so sorry, Court..."


	2. Chapter One: Can't be how Parker Did It!

_Chapter One._

_ Mondays; "This Cannot Be How Peter Parker Did It!"_

"I'm so sorry Court!"

"Holy shock, holy shock, holy _shock! You're Spider-Man?!"_

He would have normally berated himself with the question of how could he have been so careless, literally being caught with his mask off by the new girl in school but Miguel knew exactly how and why he had been so careless. His personal A.I., Lyla, had picked up a live news feed of a two story tall Rhino-like monster rampaging through the newly reconstructed downtown area; not but a few minutes away from one of Alchemax's "research" divisions. Lyla had picked up the live feed just as the bell rang for their lunch period, luckily at the right time.

Unluckily however it had taken him close to five minutes to find a place to safely change into his costume. The school had been unusually busy for a Monday, but it all came together when his horrified eyes lay upon the short blonde girl.

School protocol required a very thorough background check on any new attendee, not to surprising considering the fact the school was owned by Alchemax, monitored by its own police force the Private Eye, and still managed to be one of the most prestigious private schools in the country.

On the whole Miguel's spider-abilities usually gave him the edge he needed to sneak around his school like a specter; barely visible to the staff or security camera placed within or around the campus, allowing him the ability to escape and don his true identity should the need ever arise such as now.

Unfortunately the added protocols and security forced him into a seemingly unoccupied classroom.

Ironically occupied by the very reason behind to all the extra precautions.

And so there he stood, right in front of Courtney Lahanna with his costume on, but mask only halfway on.

For a moment he believed he'd still be alright. After all they only had one class together throughout the whole day so far. With it being her first day there was a fairly good chance she only realized that Spider-Man just went to her new school, let alone remembering what class they had together or even his name-

"Miguel O'Hara, the cute tall boy in my bio-chemistry class is the new Spider-Man… Holy _shock_."

Well, there goes that hope.

"Courtney, I'm sorry," he repeats, his throat surprisingly dry. "I thought this room was empty! I didn't mean for this to happen,"

"This is so shocking cool! Hey! Can I-"

Neither of them got to hear just what exactly she could do or ask as Miguel rushed at her, pinning her against the wall just as a Private Eye security guard walks pass the classroom door. Unfortunately the guard decides to survey the room anyway…

…and manages to find nothing.

"This Edgar to patrol car," the guard whines through his comm., "she's not in here either. Give her a break she's probably just in the bathroom or something."

The door closes and Miguel breathes a sigh of relief. Courtney might have done the same as well had her mouth still hadn't been clamped by Miguel's and they weren't clinging onto the classroom's ceiling.

"Sorry about this, really," he sighs as he brings them back to the floor. "Lyla, send my personal contact information to classmate Courtney Lahanna."

Voice Recognition Recognized: _Transmitting Data now Mr. O'Hara._

"Holy shock you have your own A.I. too? Are there more superheroes out there? Shock, do they all have cool tech like this?"

Geez did the girl like to swear a lot.

Miguel made a mental note never to use the curse word 'shock' so excessively himself.

"Look, I just sent my home address and personal PIN to you okay? Meet me at my place after school and I'll explain everything there, right now there's no time."

"Why not?"

He sighs; it's a legitimate question. "Oh, I dunno, probably because there's a two story tall rhino-monster rampaging through downtown Manhattan, leveling buildings and tossing cars around like packing peanuts. No doubt some kind of rogue experiment developed by our loving family-friendly corporation Alchemax," he scoffs as he reaches for his mask.

"I saw it on the news Miguel. I was just watching it, that's what I was doing in here before I hid from you and saw you change into… this. It's gigantic."

"Why, a rhino monster, huh?" he laughs to himself as he puts the mask on. "How 'bout a big teddy monster that gives out hugs, why not that instead of a big rhino or scorpion?"

In one leap he leaps to the classroom window and rears his fist back, readying to punch out the glass.

"You might want to get away from this room, the second I break outta here the school's alarm will sound off and you don't want to be anywhere near this area when it does. Don't think it'll look good for your first day here.

"Remember, my place, as soon as school lets out. And I know I probably don't have to say this, but don't tell anyone about this okay?"

"What if people get to asking where Miguel O'Hara disappeared off to?"

Shock, Miguel thought to himself, though quickly preceding to mental kick himself for using the curse word so quickly after just silently promising never to use it. It's another legit question; with the alarm about to sound off with the broken window via his abrupt exit and Miguel O'Hara nowhere to be seen, it wouldn't be hard for people to assume that the young man hurled himself out to his death.

"There's no time, I'll have to worry about that later," he surmises. "I normally use the roof access to leave, but with the security protocols kicking in with your arrival made that nearly impossible."

"Maybe you don't have to leave? Why can't the Public Eye deal with it; if this really is all Alchemax's fault shouldn't they be the ones to clean up their own mess?"

Yet another legitimate question. Had his mask not covered every bit of detail that belonged to Miguel O'Hara, Courtney would have seen a surprised and impressed look imprinted on his face.

No wonder they were both here in Alchemax's School of Gifted Youngsters.

"Yeah… but knowing the way Alchemax operates like I do, I'm certain they'll just make a bigger mess trying to clean up the one they already made. I have to be the one who reigns them all in before things get really bad. You might want to get running now, this is gonna be loud!"

The blonde haired girl spins around on her heel and makes it out in time just as Miguel rockets his fist forward. His agility and speed is so enormous that by the time the glass shards have reached the classroom floor he's already whizzing around the enormous skyscrapers the littered the city.

Although he has only been Spider-Man for less than a month, the complete, exhilarating thrill that he experienced his first time web slinging through the concrete super-jungle of the year 2099 still flows through his veins untainted. He grins under his mask broadly for a moment before the reality of his current situation befalls on him once again.

_Okay Miggy you've done this before, let's recap everything before you go risking your life for what has to be the twelfth time in the past three weeks._

He slows his descent by extending his arms and legs, the light-byte material of his suit allows him to remain aloft for a considerable time allowing him to shoot a web strand to continue his forward momentum.

_You just set off an alarm at school in your attempt at trying to sneak out to stop a cross species freak from destroying Manhattan. I guess I would have accomplished the 'sneaking' part a tad bit better if I hadn't gotten so careless. The school's security has beefed up considerably ever since Spider-Man came out on the scene… bet it doesn't make them comfortable knowing that there's a symbol out there for the people to get behind, a symbol that Alchemax can't control or buy out. The school is owned by Alchemax, so it may be safe to assume the nearly all other Alchemax owned buildings and properties may have beefed up security protocols as well. Better watch myself when I get to Rhino. The Private Eye police force may be happy if I manage to take out Rhino, but there'll be nothing to stop them from shooting me in the back once the monster is stopped._

He rotates his upper body gracefully through the air, dipping and zooming through oncoming TecCars as he shoots out another web-line.

_But if that isn't enough to have on your plate Miggy, if you even manage to stop this beast you still have that new girl waiting for you at home, wanting to know everything about you. Man, I can't believe I was so careless, but I gotta cut myself some slack I suppose. Private Eye guards were everywhere in that building; it's a miracle I managed to get out at all. And luckily that girl seems to be alright for the most part. As long as she doesn't give anything away I can explain it all to her at my place._

Miguel slows down his approach as he eyes zoom in on a massive crowd of Private Eye patrol cars on the city street below. He lands on a TecTaxi, but on briefly.

"Ayy freak! What da shock you think you doin' up there huh?!"

"Oh yeah, can't wait to get my license and be stuck in one of these things all day! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go do something that actually benefits society and save some-

"Lives?"

Landing atop of a streetlight Miguel gawks as he witnesses Alchemax personnel towing away a monstrously large, spiky rhinoceros creature that looked as though it did indeed take up the length of the street. Thankfully however it did look deeply unconscious.

"They actually did it," Miguel says to himself. "Well shock me. I race my spider-butt over here, risk my identity not only to my school that's owned by Alchemax no less but also to the new girl, only to find out I wasn't needed here anyway!" He curses the sky as he leaps several stories upwards, shooting a web-line at a very familiar looking TecTaxi. "This _cannot _be how Peter Parker did it!"


	3. Chapter Two: Easy, Tiger

_Chapter Two._

_ Easy, Tiger._

"…So."

"So."

"You're Spider-Man."

"Yeah."

"But not the original, Peter Parker Spider-Man."

"Correct."

"Are you related to him?"

"No, no. At least not that I'm aware of."

"You just have his powers."

"More or less, yeah."

"Are you a product of Alchemax?"

"No. Well, yeah… kinda. It's complicated."

"Hey no lies here! You said you'd tell me everything."

"Yes, yes I did."

"So would I be correct in saying that you're a failed experiment that Alchemax was behind? Like the big rhino thingy that was in downtown Manhattan earlier?"

"No, I'm not some freak like that. I'm still human. Roughly. About fifty percent human, anyway."

"Aha! You are a failed experiment!"

"I just told you I wasn't!"

"No lying!"

"No lying? Okay, you want my super cool origin story? Fine. Due to my high marks at school I was offered a high ranking position in one of Alchemax's genetics lab. But I was too young, too brash and too stupid to realize what they were doing until it was too late. Like any cliché corporation in our day in age they were trying to create super soldiers using the basic chemical blueprint of the hyper-stimulant and hyper-addictive drug you know as Rapture.

"I'd always been a big fan of Spider-Man… mi Madre would tell me stories about his adventures when I was a kid. I wanted to see if I could steer the program in that direction, and Tyler Stone,"

"One of the heads at Alchemax? You worked with him? He's supposed to be-"

"_The Einstein of the Year 2099_, yeah I remember the ads they used to run. Anyway, he wanted to rush the project, and with his stubbornness and my ego we did. I thought I was going to be famous. Miguel O'Hara, the prodigy of Alchemax, its boy wonder. Tyler Stone's pride and joy.

"But our first human test subject died. And then the second, the fifth. And… so on. I started to see what he didn't allow the public to see. Not just the insane stubbornness he possessed, but his vanity, the cold, uncaring attitude he had poisoned the company with his touch and genius. He warped nearly everything about it.

"I realized this just before when he tried to kill me."

"…"

"I became disgusted with what he was doing. What _we_ were doing. I told him I wanted out. I didn't even want to try and fight him on any moral or ethical ground of what we did; I just wanted to physically get away from it all. But I guess he was scared that I would go running to someone and tell the truth. He knew I was smart, and probably thought that if he were in my shoes he wouldn't have just walked away.

"He dosed me with Rapture. Alchemax is the only corporation in the country that legally distributes the drug in small doses. Once the human body is exposed to Rapture, it's usually dependent on it for the rest of its living life. This was his way of keeping me on the payroll and within his control. I couldn't live with the idea of him owning my life, so I tried to kill myself.

"Ironically it was the very thing that saved me. I had used myself as a test subject. I wanted to die, and what fitting way to off myself than the very thing that had led me to my lowest point? For only reasons that the Almighty knows, I was reborn. My d.n.a. had been broken down and reconstructed with the spider d.n.a I had personally researched. At first I was disgusted; why should I be allowed to live when I had allowed so many others to die in the exact same process? Well, Stone believed the exact same thing.

"I remember climbing out of the cellular pod with him standing over it, gun in hand. He was smiling; with malice or pride, I'll never know, but he made me walk over to the corner, facing the wall. He was going to put a bullet in my head like an animal, after everything I'd done for him.

"It was pure instinct. I leapt up and over him, kicked his legs out from under him and crushed the gun in my bare hand. He was laughing now… laughing, because the experiment had truly worked. He had his super soldier now.

"I don't remember much after that… Stone must have had some hidden panic button on him or something because Private Eye guards flooded in all around us, had to have been at least twenty of them. Lights, gun muzzles going off, complete bedlam.

"And when it all it ended, I was the only one left standing. The _only_ _one._"

Miguel swallows, finally allowing himself a moment to breathe. Ever since he had become Spider-Man he'd never felt physically exhausted since gaining his new physiology, but now he had felt as though he had swam across the pacific ocean in one go. Deliriously he wondered if now he could actually do just that. It just felt so exhausting, voicing aloud the events that had happened only a few months ago. He didn't even remember how exhausted he felt when they were actually happening.

Courtney Lahanna, new student at Alchemax's School for Gifted Youngsters had her butt planted on the edge of his desk chair and her jaw on the floor.

"You know, when I said 'super-duper cool origin story', I was being sarcastic," he tries to laugh it off, but Courtney remains aghast.

"So… so that's the real reason why Tyler Stone died…" she manages to whisper. "Everyone believed it was an assassination. The Daily Bugle even reported that it was a deranged employee from Stark-Fukujawara."

"No," he repeats flatly, "it was because of me."

"But you didn't actually kill him! The news reported that he had died from gunshots!"

"Gunshots that went off because of me, Courtney. If we hadn't gotten so bullheaded, so full of ourselves, we could have prevented so much death," he sighs, collapsing on his bed. "But now I've seen what big corporations like Alchemax are truly like. And there has to be someone who reins them in before they seriously start hurting the public. Otherwise there will be more Tyler Stone's out there, and they may cause the same damage he had, or worse."

"How could it get worse?"

"I'm not sure, but the way things are going now I fear we may find out."

"The Rhino," Courtney breathes, "you said so yourself that it had Alchemax's work written all over it. They must still be continuing the cross-species experiments that you and Stone had started."

"Yeah, it looks that way. And now it's my responsibility to put an end to what we started."

"Whoa." Courtney gets to her feet, walking over to the window, shoving her hand deep within her pockets. "Best first day of school ever."

He steals a glance up at her. "Seriously?"

"Seriously." She smiles.

"I'm here to entertain," he laughs.

"How were you able to get away with it?" She queries. "I mean, you were there when he died… I'd imagine forensic evidence of your presence would have been left, not to mention if this was an Alchemax's genetics lab there had to been a ridiculously high amount of security. Especially if you were working closely with one of its top scientists."

Miguel absentmindedly placed his hands behind his head, shrugging. "I thought that the same the day after it happened. You have no idea how terrified I felt; I thought I was going to be hunted down by the Private Eye for the rest of my life. But as far as me leaving any hair or fingerprints behind; Alchemax had my fingerprints and d.n.a on file, yes, as an employee. But the genetic sequencer has recoded my d.n.a with roughly fifty percent of a spider's, so it is safe to assume my fingerprints would no longer match after I underwent the procedure. As far as camera security, there was a great lack of any on this particular property. I guess Stone always knew just how wrong it was, what we were doing that he wanted to record none of it, not even for the company's posterity. It would be too much against himself and the company if what we had been doing had gotten out."

Courtney nods thoughtfully before a smile emblazons itself across her face. Miguel feared he would get whiplash just by noticing how swiftly her expressions appeared to change, but considering the position he'd placed her in he couldn't blame her. "So, what is it all that you're able to do now that you're virtually half spider?"

"Well, for one, I can do this."

In one smooth motion he thrusts his body up towards the ceiling from his bed, clinging onto it upside down.

"So shocking cool," she smiles. "How are you able to do that? Does your body secrete a special solution that allows adhesion on the molecular level? Or is it some sort of mental telekinetic ability?"

"No, no, nothing to fantastical as that," he smiles as he lands back onto the bedroom floor. "Talons in both my fingertips and toes."

"They look sharp…"

"They can be. Much like any appendage I'm able to flex them on command, and clearly I'm only able to cling onto things when they're extended. It took me awhile to mentally get control over it. For awhile they only retracted when I touched my own skin, which was still good, otherwise picking my nose would have been lethal."

"What about webbing?"

"Ah," he rolled up his sleeves, "spinnerets in both my forearms, they exit through these slits at the top of my wrists. Better the top than the bottom or people would think I would have tried to end my life. Ironically that wouldn't be too far from the truth, come to think of it."

"Whoa," she ran her fingers over the ports carefully. "How much webbing are you able to produce? What does your body utilize to produce it anyway?"

"Oh, well, I'm not so sure I never really tried to deplete it. It seems to rely on my current state of health, which makes sense seeing as its purely organic and comes directly from my body. Its makeup also closely resembles actual spider silk, just on a bigger scale."

"Which would still make sense, seeing as you're essentially a spider in proportion of a human's size? Fascinating… what about strength levels? You punched out that window at the school easily enough."

"The original Spider-Man was known to lift ten tons at his peak. I haven't tested how much I can lift myself, by seeing as my powers aren't radiation based but genetically based, its safe to assume I can lift that much as well and possibly more.

"One thing that I didn't foresee in possessing something that the original Spider-Man hadn't was Accelerated Vision."

"Accelerated Vision?"

"Yeah. Not only am I able to perceive motions at a clearer rate, making everything appear slower to me, but I can see things at great distances, even in the dark.

"But there are a few drawbacks. Such as this for example."

"Whoa!"

Courtney had to refrain from leaping backwards in pure surprise as she had witnessed Miguel's irises and pupils disappear completely from his eyeballs. "Yeah. Whenever I activate it, this happens, making it quite noticeable as you've demonstrated. Also I do have fangs in my mouth," he explains but figures it wiser to not actually show her at this moment. "They also secrete venom that paralyses for roughly an hour, also the same length of time my webbing seems to survive before it breaks down.

"It's kinda hard to talk with the fangs at times without showing them though. I've had to rework the way I move my lips when I talk just to keep them hidden and-"

"Yeah, I've noticed that. You kinda mumble when you talk."

He looks at her genuinely surprised for what had felt like the umpteenth time that day. "I do?"

"Yeah. I thought it was cute, but now that I know the reasoning behind it, it's a little gross."

"Cute?"

"You hear what you want to hear don't you?"

"What?"

"Exactly. I guess the only thing that wasn't augmented was your hearing," she grinned. "I guess you're still more man than spider."

Miguel rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Yeah… well, listen, I need you to promise me Courtney that you will not-"

Playfully she raised her index finger up to her lips. "I've already thrown away the key to my lock-box of secret keeping. You have nothing to worry about Miguel, you're secret is safe with-"

"Shh! I hear something,"

"Huh, I guess you do have enhanced hearing too!"

"!"

Miguel's bedroom door swung open, the door itself hitting the wall thunderously, revealing a rather short Latina woman with long curly hair staring flummoxed at the pair.  
"Mom!"

"Oh, Miggy!" she nearly coughed up. "I heard voices and I wasn't sure what was going on in here… it isn't often that you have company over these days."

After taking a brief moment to silently scold himself for not locking his bedroom door, he motioned towards Courtney. "Mom, this is Courtney Lahanna-"

"I'm his girlfriend."

This time both the O'Hara's gaped toward her direction.

"It's nice to meet you Mrs. O'Hara, and I hope you don't mind, we were just merely talking about school," she sprang up from her chair with a little skip, grabbing Miguel's hand. "Miguel was just about to show me to the door actually."

"Huh? Oh, right," he confirmed, slowly following his new 'girlfriend's' lead.

"Again, it was a pleasure!" she bowed as they left a very surprised mother in his bedroom.

"Girlfriend? Really?" he whispered to her as they reached the main door.

"What?" she shrugged innocently. "It was the only excuse I could think of, plus it looks like she bought it. And after all weren't you just telling me to keep your secret a, well, secret?"

She had him there. "Well, yeah, but I don't know Courtney, it just seems…"

"Kiss me."

"What?"

"Hurry!"

"!"

Miguel only had a second to lean in towards her before Courtney arched herself on the ends of her toes to let her lips reach his. The embrace was brief, but the effect incredibly strong and charged.

She pulled back after a long minute. "See you at school tomorrow, Miggy," she smiled and took her leave.

"I like her, she's cute."

Miguel spun around on his heel to face his mother once more. Damn it all if the girl wasn't right; she looked as though she bought the story. He had always felt the sneaking suspicion that his mother noticed that her son mostly kept to himself, even just now noting that he rarely had company over. His becoming Spider-Man was the sole reason behind this, but this was a reason that had also been kept secret from her as well; maybe him acquiring a 'girlfriend' would not only put his mother's mind more at ease but also give him excuses for his random disappearing acts when times would arrive that Spider-Man was needed.

But there's no way Courtney thought that all through in that brief moment, did she…?

"Yeah mom, I like her too," Miguel grinned to himself as he closed the door. "So, what do we have for dinner?"

"Meatloaf!"

Miguel moaned. "You mean pizza?" he deflected hopefully.

"No, I mean meatloaf?"

"Pizza?"

"Meatloaf!"

"Pizza?"

"…Pizza."

"Sweet! Pizza!"

"Yeah," Mrs. O'Hara smiled as she prepared her kitchen, "pizza that looks, smells, and tastes and awful lot like meatloaf."

Miguel grinned, a hesitant grin, but a grin nonetheless.

Things were finally beginning to look up.


	4. Chapter Three: Enter Lahanna

Chapter Three.

Enter Lahanna.

"It was from basketball."

No, it was a ridiculously lame excuse, but Miguel of course couldn't tell Sheryl that. He couldn't explain that he had been swinging around Manhattan, webs on high as he surveyed his home city like a demi-god dressed in Halloween wear. Nor could he express the guilty rush he experienced as he sailed through the air towards a robbery that had been currently in progress and had been surrounded by a surprisingly large number of thugs that had tried to knock off the corner store. And he'd be dammed if he revealed that one of said thugs had managed to clock him upside his face from behind, to which Miguel had responded by shrilly yelling _Oh no you didn't! You shoulda just bought a lottery ticket, because clearly this is your lucky day! _Before proceeding to clock the assailant upside his head as well, throttling him against several tasty snacks and treats before crumpling into a heap against the far wall.

No. No, he didn't dare say any of that. As far as anyone else could, or would know, his black eye had been the result of a-

"Basketball." Sheryl repeated dryly.

"Mhm hmm," he nodded, closing his locker.

"You don't play basketball," she stated very matter of factly, "you've never held a basketball a day in your life."

Miguel instantly felt a fire within him spring up with such an intensity to battle his girlfriend on this point.

However the fire substantially subside after scanning his memory and could not find one such instant in which he actually did play basketball, let alone hold one.

He simply sighed. "I hate that you know me so well."

"It's my job," she smiled.

"Okay fine, I accidentally ran into a wall," he conceded, "I was rushing out of class yesterday and I rounded a corner a little too hard, felt like someone clocked me outta nowhere."

"Awe poor baby," Sheryl leaned upward and forward, pecking him lightly on his bruise. "You have to be more careful, you're reflexes aren't that great you know."

"Yeah," he slings his arm over her as they make their way down the crowded hallway.

Although that same guilty feeling would always creep upon him by the day's end, the slight shame for lying to those closest to him for their own safety, he couldn't help but smile to himself in moments like these in which he had pulled off such a deceit relatively smoothly. There was nothing quite like the excitement of lying to protect your superhero identity, nothing like wearing your ridiculously skin tight suit underneath your normal school wear.

If only the price hadn't be so high.

But, Miguel saw it as merely trying to enjoy the little things that his new dual life afforded him.

And, speaking of little new things.

"What is your shocking problem?!"

A small crowd of teens were clustering around the end of the hallway. Before Sheryl could even ponder aloud who had been doing all the shouting Miguel had already been making his way through to its epicenter, his inhuman strength clearing a path all too easily for them.

What they did discover however was not a sight all too easy to swallow.

Courtney stared grimed at a tall blonde hair young man, a very intricate looking blade held loosely in her hand.

"Whoa!" before even realizing it Miguel had already placed his body between the pair of them much to the horror on Sheryl's face. "What is going on here?"

"You know this freaker O'Hara?"

It took a moment for Miguel to swallow this sentence. Freaker was a common slang he had heard thrown his way pretty often these days, but usually when he was wearing a particular set of red and blue outfits. "Erik? What is going on?" he addressed him, but Courtney was far too heated to let him have any say.

"This shocking idiot," she rolled her eyes, "attacked this guy out of nowhere! He kicked him from behind, hard!"

"We were just having some fun O'Hara," Erik scoffed quickly, "you know, just messing around."

"No, you heard us talking about Spider-Man!"

Miguel swallowed again. Suddenly the whole hallway seemed to be a bit blurred.

"It was just horseplay! And it serves you freakers' right, talking about a freaker like the Spider-Man."

"Stop calling him a freaker! He's not one!"

"Oh please, of course he is! That is if he even exists, I mean, no one can even get a good glimpse of him! You two we're fan boy-ing over a boogeyman practically!"

Courtney began her approach but Miguel within one motion snatched the blade from her hand. The crowd gasped in a mixture of shock and awe.

"Huh, thanks O'Hara," Erik patted his back, "do me a favor and tell the freaker next time to let everybody know when she feels like acting like a little bitch-"

It was Miguel's turn to grimace at the bully threateningly. Perhaps he had put too much into it; he could feel his fangs glaring from behind his lips, his eyes slowly seeing that familiar faint hue it normally did whenever he had activated his Accelerated Vision.

But it was Courtney's turn to hold him back.

"It's okay Miggy," she assured. Both Miguel and Sheryl rounded their eyes onto her as their ears picked up on the nickname. "You just don't get it, Erik. I think something special is happening. Something big. And all these _freakers_ you claim to hate like the Spider-Man, and the Rhino that was spotted a couple of days ago. Well, I think its all happening for a reason. I don't know what reason, but it's an important one. It just has to be. And who knows, maybe they'll all be running the world in a year's time, maybe even less.

"That's why it has to be our responsibility to be the best we can be, now. It starts here, with us. So that way a superhero like the Spider-Man doesn't have to think twice about saving a pedestrian from a monster like the Rhino. Because he knows that we're good people. That we are worth saving. And trust me; I know that bad people run this world. Bad people who run sick experiments on others, who torture one another. And this is where it all begins. This is the catalyst, right here, right now. The way you bullied me and my friend here. If you don't wise up, you will become one of those bad people who end up trying to run the world. And seeing as we all go to school that is literally for the 'gifted', it'd be a shocking shame if it let loose a piece of crap like you with a diploma the way you are now.

"I'm sorry if I pulled a knife on you. Yeah, that was a bit much. But someone had to get through to you. Someone had too. My name is Courtney Lahanna, by the way. Use it."

And with that, Courtney took her leave…

…only to run into half of the school's faculty.

"Oh, shock it," she heaved a heavy sigh as they walked her towards the principal's office.

Slowly the crowd dispersed, leaving only Miguel, Sheryl and Erik in its wake.

"Figures right? The one time we actually need security and they took forever to actually come!" Erik sniggered.

"Oh shut up Erik!" Sheryl yelled as a similar ferocity that had been found within Courtney seemed to sprout from her as well. Deliriously Miguel wondered if he just attracted strong-willed females. To which he then concluded that it wasn't such a bad thing if it were true.

"You're telling me to shut up Sheryl?" he said as if it were truly a ridiculous perspective to come from, "She pulled a knife on me!"

"Yes, and no," Miguel pulled the knife from his pocket. He didn't need to have Accelerated Vision to determine what it really was at this close a distance. "See this?"

He extended his palm outward and forced the blade against it. Before either of them could react in terror he pulled back the blade revealing no apparent harm.

"It's a collapsible… blunt and fairly light. You couldn't cut tension with this thing let alone create it. At least if you knew beforehand what it really is," he tossed it at Erik, "it's a fake."


End file.
